Broadside ballad entitled 'The Crocodile'

Transcription

The Crocodile.

This most wonderful song came out of the Poet's Box, and can
only be had there for the price of One Penny.

AIR?End for End Jack.

Come list, ye landsmen, unto me,
To tell you the truth I'm bound,
Of what happened me whilst I was at sea,
And the wonders there I found.
Shipwreck'd was I, just off Peru,
Scarce half a league from shore,
So, resolved was I, to have a cruise,
The country to explore.
                Oh! ri tol de rol, &c.

I scarcely there had scudded out,
When close long side the ocean,
I saw something move, which, at the first, I thought,
Was all the world in motion.
I quickly bore longside of it
And found 'twas a crocodile,
And from his nose to the tip of his tail,
It measured five hundred miles.
                Oh! ri tol de rol, &c.

This crocodile, I could plainly see,
Was not of the common race;
I was obliged to climb a very high tree
To get a sight of his face!
My eyes! when he did ope' his jaws?
Now, perhaps you'll think it a lie,
'Twas above the clouds for miles three score,
And his nose quite touched the sky.
                Oh! ri tol de rol, &c..

I being aloft, the sea ran high,
It blew a gale from the south?
Lost my hold, and away .did fly
Into this crocodile's mouth;
He quickly closed his jaws on me?
Thinking to grab a victim?
But I ran down his throat, dy'e see,
And, (damme) that's the way I trick'd him.
                Oh! ri tol de rol, &c

I travelled on for a month or two,
'Til I got in his maw,
Where I found of rum kegs not a few,
With' plenty of bullocks in straw!
Of life I banished all its cares?
For, of grub I was not stinted;
In this crocodile ten years I lived,
And was jolly well contented.
                Oh! ri tol de rol, &c.

This crocodile being very old,
Alas! one day he died;
He was full five years a-getting cold,
He was so long and wide!
His skin was five miles thick, I'm sure,
Or somewhere there about,
For I was full six months, or more,
Cutting a tunnel to get out.
                Oh!ri tol de rol, &c.

So, now, you see me safe on land,
Determined no more to roam;
In a ship that I passed I got a berth,
So you see me safe at home.
But if my story you should doubt?
If ever you travel the Nile,
Just where he fell you'll find the shell
Of this rummy crocodile.
                Oh! ri tol de rol, &c.

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